Background info, 1915 110 cam, points ign, single dellorto carb
3 rib , and tons of fun
3 years ago i had it at haspin for a weekend and it was fun but tore up 1st gear
got home and was driving across yard, it died
would crank but not start
i never checked to see why, could have been spark or fuel.
fast forward to now (yes it has been sitting)
new points, plugs, wires (no where had a condensor yet)
it has spark, it is a white spark that jumps 1/4 inch to cage
i checked valve adjustment and it is good (.006)
i have brought 1 to tdc and put dist in and put on wires a dozen time (1432)
like i said it sparks
i have used a fuel pump and pumped the crap out of the carb and it will not start
i have dumped fuel down the carb and nothing
a couple times it backfired out of the carb
i have pulled plugs and checked, they all spark


before when it ran it ran great, no smoke
i realize compression loss could be possible but i dont see it just shutting down like it di
maybe someone has an idea. and i appreciate any help
i consider myself a decent mechanic at least until this.
i know it has fuel, i know it has spark
if i turn dist while cranking it hits a spot that "seems to turn over better" like it should fire or buck or something.
thanks guys

Just my 2 cents. After sitting for so long they are all too hard to start.Set your timing with a test lite at 7.5 btdc. Turn it over with throttle wide open for 30 secs then spray some starting fluid. If it don't start with the either gas and a spark ....Check the upper inside of the dist cap for moisture.

if you dont have a compression gauge just put your finger over the spark plug hole and crank it. I would think if its a compression problem you have some how lost all of it. make sure your cam is turning and valves are opening.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

if you have some compression go ahead and change points and coil because a white spark is a weak spark. you should have a bright blue spark and it should be able to jump atleast a 1/2" to ground.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

i put my thumb over hole and it has compression, enough that i cant seal hole but doesn't blow my thumb off.
I'm going to get new ign parts and try those.
after messing with it for a while and holding throttle wide open I finally got something
it spit a little and had a little flame action out the exhaust
thanks for help and I will reply back after new ign parts

holding the throttle open helped clear the plugs a little. start with just coil and points.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

new parts in, points and coil
has a good blue spark
pops and flames out exhaust so timing is off. also has smoke coming out exhaust but then sucks smoke down in
it has a standard buggy header but no tip so i can see what all 4 cyl's are doing.
this tells me either exhaust valves are burnt or not adjusted right?
thanks again

Have you checked the firing order.

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Water Cooled Consortium, Chairman of the Build (Former AC purist)

yep 1432 with 1 at tdc on compression stroke, i put plug wire one where rotor button is pointing and wires on cap from there.

3 years on fuel is a bad thing. dump the tank. take off the carb and atleast clean the bowl area ( your probably gonna found some brown poop in there) fill with fresh gas and go play. old fuel mixed with moisture burns very slow causing most of it to burn in the exhaust. double and triple check your valve adjustment.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

i had cleaned carb and changed fuel.
however when i started working on it,it had white spark
after replacing what you guys suggested it had blue
but being in a hurry i had wires at 1342
I switched those and it wanted to buck a little but it was turning over slow
after all this working on it I must have trashed the starter, i had a new one sitting in spare parts.
put it on and barely bumped switched and it started and came to an idle.
I really appreciate the help guys

My 6 year old son heard it start so he came running out to the shop and was more excited then me. But then he said wow dad now we just have to change the trans and we are ready to go. But hey it runs great.
Thanks again

you better get that trans fixed i dont want to hear your little boy didnt get to ride this year

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

and thanks for the followup. we all like to hear that we have helped someone.

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If it ain't broke ill fix that

No problem and thanks again to you guys, and I have another 3 rib so it shouldn't be to hard. I think only have to pull the nose cone off anyway it lost first but never made noise and it wasn't popping out of gear so I don't expect much issue there.